
Steven Pope is the Founder of My Amazon Guy (MAG), a full-service marketing agency known as the “Wikipedia of Amazon knowledge” that serves 300-plus brands. MAG provides over 1,500 tutorial videos on YouTube, educating hopefuls on how to grow sales on Amazon. Steven helps clients grow through onsite and offsite channels, including SEO, SEM, and social media. With over a decade of experience in corporate marketing and e-commerce, he’s worked for multiple product brands, including serving as the Digital Marketing Manager for APMEX, Inc., which achieved 10 million additional website visits under his direction.
- [0:00] Introducing Steven Pope, founder of one of the fastest-growing Amazon agencies
- [3:56] Is Amazon still a leading e-commerce authority?
- [6:05] The characteristics of successful Amazon sellers — and how to sell on the platform
- [11:58] Why Amazon sellers need to be profit-obsessed
- [20:26] How sellers should assess Amazon’s competition
- [28:33] The importance of diversifying your skills
- [34:46] Steven’s retail arbitrage and reselling strategies
- [41:36] Advice for adapting to Amazon’s rapidly shifting landscape
- [44:43] Steven shares his predictions about the future of Amazon
- [51:23] Embracing and learning from failures
In this episode…
According to a study conducted by Marketplace Pulse, only 0.003% of the top 50 Amazon sellers reach $100 million in sales, and only 23% of the platform’s bottom sellers achieve $100,000. These astoundingly unfavorable statistics are often influenced by Amazon’s shifting logistics landscape in response to competition. How can you achieve profitability without exhausting your resources?
Having sold an Amazon brand after experimenting with various product categories, Steven Pope says that while Amazon is still the industry giant, platforms like TikTok and Walmart are rising in consumer popularity. Amazon sellers must diversify their portfolios and sell on multiple e-commerce platforms. However, as competition thickens, Amazon will raise its fees, so you should respond by identifying new products and categories to remain nimble and innovative. Additionally, while Steven once disputed retail arbitrage, he now maintains that you can make hundreds and thousands of dollars a month by buying and selling profitable products from other retailers.
Join Rolando Rosas in the latest episode of What The Teck? as he sits down with Steven Pope, the Founder of My Amazon Guy, to talk about selling on Amazon in a shifting landscape. Steven addresses the future of the platform, the importance of embracing and learning from strategic failures, and the characteristics of successful Amazon sellers.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Rolando Rosas on LinkedIn
- Dave Kelly on LinkedIn
- Global Teck Worldwide
- Circuit Loops
- Steven Pope on LinkedIn
- My Amazon Guy
- “The Ultimate Guide to Amazon Profitability” with Nick Gezzar on What The Teck?
- “Evolving Landscape: Crucial Advice and Helpful Strategies for Amazon Sellers” with Steven Pope on What The Teck?
- “Jim Keyes: The Secret to Every Company’s Success or Failure – Not ads or flashy tech” on What The Teck?
- “Building a Tech Company: How To Disrupt the Market With Innovative Smartphones” with Sandeep Chennakeshu on What The Teck?
- Chad Rubin on LinkedIn
- The Diary of a CEO on YouTube
- Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by Global Teck Worldwide.
We are a full-service online retailer of professional headsets, webcams, and speaker phones from top manufacturers.
Since 2002, Global Teck Worldwide has provided affordable, high-quality communications equipment and customized telecommunications services to organizations of all sizes.
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Episode Transcript:
Steven Pope 0:00
This is gonna shock you, but I sold my Amazon brand. That’s right. I lost over $250,000 last year and I decided somebody else might be able to run this better.
Rolando Rosas 0:11
I have so many questions,
Steven Pope 0:14
I chose the wrong products and I paid the consequence of that to ask yourself how much money am I willing to lose to prove myself wrong, I bought the dream house with a nice cars money in the bank, I’ve got five kids in a pile, there is something that is far greater than all of that. And that is Steven
Intro 0:30
Pope, international thought leaders, a former reporter who founded one of the fastest growing Amazon agencies, My Amazon Guy who has no all over the world is an expert on Amazon. I’ve never seen the Amazon community so upset Amazon is going to continue maximizing its investment. We saw this in every sector of railroads to oil to when Walmart put all the modern processes, our only a chance at Amazon being knocked off monopoly status. I can’t believe I have to say that out loud.
Rolando Rosas 1:01
is Amazon still a goldmine? I think it’s up for
Steven Pope 1:04
debate just show up and when aspects is gone, there’s no way you could just pick a random product and throw it up on Amazon and make money you have in the blood of good Amazon sellers, tenacity and grit. And if you don’t have tenacity and grit to overcome the you’re done, what I discovered over the last six years of running a $20 million dollar agency is that
Rolando Rosas 1:29
you welcome to What The Teck? your gateway to business strategies and tech secrets, shaping today’s workplace. Today, we have the great fortune of having the wonderful Steven Pope, the founder of My Amazon Guy, and he has a very interesting story to share, which I think anybody that is on Amazon should hear because it is important to talk about these things openly, transparently. And honestly, when you are selling on Amazon, too many gurus say you should do this, or you should do that or things should be like this. But let’s hear from the mouth of somebody who’s been in the trenches still in the trenches, and has a lot of interesting experiences to share. So let me introduce you to Steven Pope. Welcome to the show. All right. So I saw something on the interwebs the other day, and you were sharing your story about your brand age of sage. It’s a sad one. But there’s redemption. Right? Let’s do that story arc that said, but there’s redemption there’s there’s an arc there that I think a lot of people will find interesting, because a lot of the advice that we that we hear today is that you should do this, and you should do PPC this way. And you should, you know, position yourself that way. So you shared it. I want to share with our audience, just a little clip of that. So they get a little taste of this, and then we’ll talk about it on the other side. All
Steven Pope 2:58
right, sounds good. This is gonna shock you but I sold by Amazon brand. That’s right. I’ve been losing money on my Amazon brand. I lost over $250,000 last year selling agent sage products. And I decided, you know, I think somebody else might be able to run this better.
Rolando Rosas 3:17
I was blown. I was like this. I was in this chair. And I was like, that was my reaction. I couldn’t I was like, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I really did. And I was and I have so many questions. I have so many questions. So I hope you’re ready. I’m
Steven Pope 3:40
out of my my first band cup. Look.
Rolando Rosas 3:45
Amazon has such a struggle. The what I want to ask you first, is Amazon still a goldmine? Or are we in a new era where the Gold Rush is over? That is
Steven Pope 3:56
a good question. Whether it’s a goldmine or not, I think it’s up for debate. It’s definitely still got some copper and nickel in there, which is worth going after. That’s kind of how first impression respond to that Amazon is not passive income. And it’s still very difficult, but it always has been. The difference today though, is a lot of the free ride or just show up and when aspect is gone, that’s for sure gone, right? Like there’s no way you could just pick a Rando product look like me to Alibaba light and throw it up on Amazon and make money that just cannot work anymore. You have to do some actual product Dev, you got to know something. And that’s really kind of the main thesis that I was trying to get out there is that I’m a I’m a super marketer, but I’m not a super sorcerer. I’m not a super operator when it came to the brand and so I chose the wrong products and I paid the consequence of that Amazon on Black Friday. They’re just like boom all of your parody tumblers I’ve got a couple on my desk here my this is the way my look for the light Buy Starbucks cups all of them, every single one of them removed from Amazon brand registry and they’re just like, you’re done, sir.
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